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The Kathleen Wynne government announced plans to expand its controversial ice storm food voucher program beyond Toronto as Conservative MPPs fired accusations of postal code politics.

Local municipalities will hand out $450,000 in grocery store cards — in Dufferin County, Halton Region, Hamilton, Peel Region, Waterloo Region, Wellington County and York Region on Tuesday. They’ll be issued in Northumberland County on Wednesday and in Durham Region Thursday.

The premier’s office stressed that the cards are only meant for those in need after numerous reports of well-heeled Torontonians lining up last week for taxpayer and corporation-subsidized $50 and $100 food vouchers meant for the poor.

“We fundamentally believe the right thing to do was to try to help,” said Zita Astravas, a spokesperson for Wynne.

“In just three days, $842,600 worth of food gift cards were distributed, more than quadruple what we originally anticipated would be possible,” she added. “While not perfect, it was important to make help available to those in need as soon as possible.”

PC MPP Doug Holyday said the government’s emergency response to the pre-Christmas ice storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands was tainted by Wynne’s desire to score political points.

Wynne wanted to be seen handing out food hampers, and didn’t take the time to ensure that a system was in place so that food cards went to the people most in need, he said.

“This is so political and blatant that it defies logic, actually,” Holyday insisted. “And these cards had everything but the Premier’s picture on them.”

And Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod added the province should have distributed the cards through food banks across the province, not hand them out on a first-come-first-serve basis in Toronto in a manner that almost turned the waiting line up into an angry mob.

“She abused taxpayer dollars, she abused corporate generosity all in the name of a quick photo op that turned into a very dangerous PR stunt for her,” MacLeod said.

Ontario PCs say they were frozen out of the official government response to the ice storm, left in the dark about issues affecting their constituents.

The PCs are calling for a government committee to investigate what went wrong and how to avoid similar problems in the future.